For the first time since the collapse of Bashar al -Assad’s government last month, a high -ranking delegation arrived in Damascus on Tuesday, as Russia wants to discuss the country’s new leadership on the future of its military bases in Syria.
The diplomats arriving in the Syrian capital on Tuesday included Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Mikhail Bogadanov, who monitors Middle East affairs, and Syria, according to a Russian state news agency TASS report. Special Presidential Envoy, Alexander Loriantov, reported the Russian state news agency TASS.
Syrian rebels, who lost Mr Al -Assad last month, fought against Russian -backed government forces for years, but their interim leader has suggested that he over -leaping historical links and geographical political interests, Syria with Moscow Want to continue the relationship.
In an interview to Saudi Arabia’s official television channel Al -Arabia last month, Ahmad al -Shahara, the leader of the rebel coalition, who expelled Mr Assad, called Russia a “major country”. He said he did not want Russia to leave Syria “in a way that he wanted.”
Mr Al -Shahara said, “We do not want Russia to get out of Syria, which damages its relations with our country.”
Mr Al -Shahara’s Islamist rebel group, Hayat Tahir al -Sham, has been named a terrorist organization by both Russia and the United States. But after the leaders of Moscow and the West, there have been a wide range of rotation for geographical political influence in Syria.
There are two major military bases in the country of Russia: Targets on the Mediterranean, which has been from the Soviet era, and the Times Air Base near Latakia, which Russian forces helped to return to Mr. Al -Assad in 2015. Russian forces also established small checkpoints across the country in the civil war.
Closing the bases will be a severe blow to the ambitions of maintaining military festivals in the Middle East and preventing influence in the Mediterranean.
Russian President Vladimir Wei Putin, who has extended the shelter to Mr Al -Assad in Moscow, said during his annual call in the show last month that Russia should consider what its bases in Syria. It should be done, now this country is under control. New leadership.
Mr Putin said, “We must think about it, because we have to decide for ourselves how our relations will develop with the political forces that will overcome control and the situation in this country.”
Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei V Lavrov, interviewed the Russian state media outlet in late December, saying he expects the new rebel leadership to change the arrangements about the bases.
Mr Lavrov said, “Of course, change of power and changes on earth will have some special adjustments in Russia’s military presence in Syria.” “It not only includes the deployment of our bases or pits, but also their operations, rehabilitation and assistance and interaction with local authorities.”
He said these issues could be a topic of dialogue with the new Syrian leadership.
